Memphis Injury Lawyer Blog

Each year Memphis trial lawyers deal with children who are maimed or killed by the single most dangerous machine in Tennessee: the automobile. Our personal injury law firm recently represented a family whose young son was struck by a car which resulted in the young man being thrown over 30 feet into the air before he landed near the middle of Lamar. The Memphis driver was an elderly gentleman who simply failed to see the boy crossing the street.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) there were 4,749 pedestrian fatalities in 2003 in our county. The 0-14 age group accounted for390 (8 percent) of those fatalities, and 65 percent of the pedestrian fatalities in this age group were males.In addition to the pedestrians under 15 years old who died, 17,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes. These young pedestrians accounted for 24 percent of the total pedestrians injured in motor vehicle crashes in 2003.Almost one-fifth (18 percent) of the traffic fatalities in the 0-14 year age group were pedestrians.

During the same time period, according to the MPD, our local situation was no better:
Memphis fatal accident list for 2003:

* Fatal accident count: 80
* Vehicles involved in fatal accidents: 128
* Fatal accidents caused by drunken drivers: 3
* Fatalities: 90
* Persons involved in fatal accidents: 225
* Pedestrians involved in fatal accidents: 27

In the face of these findings, Memphians continue to fly through school zones as though our children's lives did not hang in the balance.

We hope that your children remain safe and secure going to and from school. However, it is the parents who owe a duty of reasonable care to the children. If this duty is not met, make sure that your child's rights are protected.